7 Signs Your Employees Are Drunk At Work

Can you tell if your employees are drunk at work? Here are 7 signs that every employer should recognize.

As a responsible business owner, you take the management of your employees seriously. You know how important it is to ensure everyone is working at their top productivity. Sometimes, though, employees make poor decisions affect their work for your business.

If you think that some of your employees are intoxicated while at work, it’s okay to feel worried. In fact, it’s smart to have some concern, according to statistics. Companies risk serious financial obligations when employees are abusing substances at work.

Throughout the United States, companies spend over $33 billion every single year due to employee alcohol abuse. Alcohol abuse can result in serious injuries or even damaged equipment.

It’s clear if you want to protect your business from those possibilities, you need to take action. In particular, you need to take preventative action by spotting employees who are drunk at work.

Consider the following seven ways to spot them.

1. Have You Noticed a Series of Unexplained or Unexcused Absences?

Poor attendance is one of the most crucial signifiers that your employee might be abusing alcohol. It’s important to remember that this poor attendance can take many forms.

Perhaps he or she has been leaving early or arriving late on a regular basis. Maybe the employee already used up available vacation time for unexplained absences in the middle of the week.

If you start to notice these patterns, it’s likely that something is going on behind the scenes. Whether they have a substance abuse problem or not, it’ll be up to you to keep investigating.

2. If an Employee Is Having More Workplace Accidents Than Normal, He or She Might Be Drunk at Work

It’s no secret that alcohol has some serious negative effects on our coordination and response time. Our bodies and our minds are slower under the effect of alcohol.

It’s an unfortunate truth that drunk employees, then, pose serious risks. This is true, in particular, when they work with heavy equipment or machinery.

Don’t hesitate if you notice an employee who operates heavy machinery seems drunk. Statistics show that workers with an alcohol problem are 270% more likely to have an accident at work.

These accidents can damage your equipment and seriously injure employees.

3. Ask Around and Consider the Perspectives of His or Her Fellow Employees

A lot of times, surrounding employees are going to be your best source for information. It’s true, though, that employees are often loyal to each other.

As the boss, you might not get a lot out of the employees you do question at first.

Over time, though, people who struggle with alcohol problems can’t help but cause issues for the others around them. If fellow employees get frustrated enough, they might be willing to share with you.

Give them plenty of time and space if they don’t confess to knowing about their drunk friend. Approach them respectfully. Soon enough, they might let you know about some serious substance abuse concerns.

4. If Your Employee Is Drunk at Work, He or She Will Not Perform Well

Of course, perhaps the most important indicator of drunkenness is cognition. If an employee is performing particularly poorly, he or she might be drunk.

As mentioned above, the body and the mind move more slowly when drunk. If their performance levels continue to drop, you have every right to seek the underlying cause.

5. Alcoholism Is Usually Identifiable by Mood Swings and Depression

Everyone reacts differently to alcohol. There are some common side effects you can spot, though, for the more serious addictions.

Employees who seem to recently have significant mood swings are worth your attention. These addictive behaviors usually problem a problem with his or her personal life. If alcohol is involved, too, you deserve to know if it’s affecting their work life.

6. Don’t Overlook an Employee’s Isolation

It’s also common for alcoholics to isolate themselves from everyone else. If you noticing an employee starting to withdraw his or herself from the crowd, take note. They might be feeling shame, anxiety, or something worth else investigating.

It’s important to remember that you won’t always know what’s going on behind the scenes. You spot all of the above seven signs an employee might be drunk. Still, don’t jump to conclusions without talking to him or her first.

There might be another explanation for those behaviors. Maybe an employee is struggling with serious health problems or personal distractions.

Both you and your employee deserve to be on the same page if you really think they’re drunk at work. Isolating his or herself could be a great indicator. Consider using a testing kit to make sure, though.

7. Don’t Be Afraid To Use Testing Kits To Know for Certain

When these situations get to a certain point, business owners likely think about testing kits. There are smart reasons for that.

Testing kits are the best way to prove, once and for all, whether an employee was intoxicated while on the job. That way, no one has any reason to complain if you take disciplinary action against a drunk employee.

Continue To Invest in the Security of Your Business with the Best Drug Testing Kits Available

At this point in the article, you should have a pretty good idea of what it takes to spot employees drunk at work. It’ll be up to you, though, to take the proper action required when you do find these behaviors. You want to make sure you do what’s best for everyone involved.

That means considering more than one angle in these situations. Not only do you need to protect your business’s interests, but you also need to protect your employee. He or she doesn’t deserve to be untreated fairly.

That’s why it’s important to only take disciplinary action if you’re certain about substance abuse. If you’re considering handling employees who abuse any substance, you need to invest in the proper testing kits.

The good news is that’s where we come into play. We provide the best drug testing kits available on the market for businesses just like yours. That’s why we encourage you to browse through our products online today.

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[…] You can find alcohol, PCP, all kinds of amphetamines, opiates, and even cannabis. While cannabis is becoming legal in many states, it may still be within your rights as a business owner to limit what kinds of substances you’ll allow in employees. Finding your employees are heavily using benzodiazepines without a prescription while they need to be heavily alert could impact your insurance and your business. […]